Oklahoma STEM Updates from Jeff Downs (August 2012)

These are my notes from the end of Jeff Downs’ presentation on August 3, 2012, at OSU-OKC during a meeting of the Oklahoma Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I arrived to this meeting late so I just caught the end of Jeff’s comments as well as the Q&A time. I’ve added links, images and referenced/related videos to this post.

I want to see STEM PD (professional development) Academies in Oklahoma, new professional development centers where we can train teachers

Do you know about Ron Clark Academy? Look for YouTube videos of it, he has reinvented how education happens in those schools and the results are great

Where do we find STEM in Oklahoma?
– Gateway Middle School: Project Lead the Way
– (about 20 other school names listed)
– getting kids excited about science, math and technology
– we have Robotics in schools like Memorial High School in Tulsa

I’ve been in my position for 7 months, since December
– we’ve created STEM department at OSDE
– science, math, instructional technology, Ag in the classroom and PD delivery system departments are all under me

Oklahoma Elementary Mathematics Specialist (OEMS) is a process that allows elementary and/or early childhood teachers to earn an elementary mathematics specialist certification in grades PK-5. The certification process and requirement was approved by the Oklahoma State Department of Education during its Feb. 23, 2012, board meeting. Now more than ever, teachers need to have vital tools to meet the needs of Common Core State Standards’ rigors and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers’ (PARCC) in-depth assessments, which Oklahoma has adopted to implement in 2014. OEMS professionals must know and understand elementary school mathematics as well as how mathematics concepts and skills develop through the secondary level. This includes specialized knowledge that teachers need in order to understand and support student learning of elementary mathematics. OEMS professionals also need to be prepared to take on collegial non-evaluative leadership roles within their schools and districts. They must have a broad view of many aspects and resources needed to support and facilitate effective instruction and professional growth.

We have a program “Think Through Math” as online program to students
– we are rolling this out to 10,000 students in the state
– a supplement to get kids Algebra ready
– this program is going statewide on Sept 1, we are buying 45,000 seats for students

18 hours of math training in elementary mathematics for the new certification
– will be in fall catalogs

I ASKED JEFF IN THE Q&A TIME IF HE IS WORKING WITH ANY OF OUR 1:1 LAPTOP SCHOOLS IN OKLAHOMA AND HOW HE SEES STEM INITIATIVES WORKING WITH OUR 1:1 SCHOOLS
– he answered that technology is really important, new PARCC tests that students will be taking are really challenging and many of our schools are not ready for them

We need to test kids the way we are teaching
– we need to figure out how to test project based environments

MY COMMENT: HERE IS A PDF OF PRESENTATION SLIDES JEFF SHARED ABOUT STEM IN OKLAHOMA EDUCATION IN FEBRUARY 2012. THESE WERE NOT THE SLIDES HE SHARED TODAY BUT PROVIDE SOME ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ABOUT STATE STEM FOCUS IN OUR STATE.